How To Be A Winner At Chess, Fred Reinfeld & Chess Titans, Microsoft
I picked up Winner at a fund raiser for 50 cents. My copy was published in 1954, before I was born. I really enjoy the anecdotal description of common situations that chess beginners, like me, find themselves in. Reinfeld makes his points clearly and simply. Many examples are used which make it easy to understand and demonstrat why the suggestions are so important
One drawback is that Reinfeld uses the old "King's Bishop Pawn" (descriptive) style notation. Most everybody today uses algebraic notation where it doesn't matter whether you are black or white because each square is uniquely labeled. Still this book is very easy to follow and much more helpful to me than many others I've read or looked at. Perhaps the 1996 version sold be Amazon (below) was edited to use algebraic notation? If you get the new version please let me know.
I wanted to improve my game because Chess Titans keep beating me! I really enjoy playing chess with my computer because I can UNDO a move when I blunder. Normally I would have said when I make a mistake but Reinfeld and other writers often use the word blunder when referring to chess mistakes. If you set the difficulty level low enough Titans makes blunders but that was too easy. So I kept cranking up the level until I got past halfway and could nor progress further.
I don't know if playing with a computer will help me when I play with people. I haven't played much with anybody else. The computer never complains when I take back a move. Anyway this game is attractive, fast and pretty good. At the highest levels I can't catch it making any mistakes. It certainly catches all of mine. It is great fun, especially for the price! It came free with Window's Vista on my computer.
I see Fred Reinfeld wrote many different chess books. I have read How To Be A Winner At Chess and also Winning Chess. The latter goes into more examples and focuses on attacks. If anybody can recommend another chess book for beginner or intermediate players that is very amusing and not terribly technical please do so. Send me mail or post to our forum.
How To Be a Winner At Chess read June '09 - Highly Recommended
This page written 6/15/09. CW
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